Empowering Children’s Rights Defenders

Empowering Children’s Rights Defenders

We provide knowledge, advice and connections to children’s rights defenders, including children, on how to influence and use the UN human rights system for sustainable change at national level.

Child Rights Connect has been the expert organisation on the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and its liaison with children’s rights defenders, including children, from around the world for more than 30 years.

Thanks to the almost universal ratification of the CRC and its Optional Protocols every member State of the UN periodically reports to the Committee. Child Rights Connect is in contact with NGOs, coalitions of NGOs, Ombudspersons and National Human Rights Institutions, who contribute to this monitoring and reporting process.

Our team in Geneva, in close cooperation with our members on the ground, supports them to effectively cooperate with the Committee and other UN human rights mechanisms, to form strong children’s rights coalitions, to build international expertise and connections, and to engage children in the most meaningful, safe and effective way. With this support, children’s rights defenders are empowered to apply a child rights-based approach to their programmes on the ground.

Child Rights Connect provides awareness-raising and technical assistance its members and mobilises the network for joint advocacy at the Human Rights Council. Through this collaborative approach we create a strong voice for and with children and ensure that children’s views influence the work of the Council to advance children’s rights at all levels.